Food Anxiety and Our Body-Mind Connection

Happy Thursday! I know I should get back to my "real work" soon, but I just thought to write this, and sometimes when I don't write things down, they end up getting lost forever.

Food anxiety is a topic that doesn't get a lot of attention in the mental health-o-sphere, but it's sadly a big part of so many lives, and the insidious irony is that anxiety over eating often causes many more issues for us than eating itself does. In eating disorders, we spend way too much time thinking about what we're going to eat/what we ate/what we "should" eat, and this just causes us frustration, worry, and pain.

From Healthy Place

For instance, one day, I made lunch, ate it, and then felt the effects of a little bit too much salt, so I immediately had this thought that I'd eaten "improperly." I don't eat a lot of salt usually, so whenever I have any, I "feel" it, and it's easy to go into "reaction" (i.e. anxiety) mode. 

Gifer

But the thing is, there was no mistake. Food does not have moral value. Food will not make or break you. And when you're coming out of disordered eating patterns, one of the most important steps is to get comfortable with new foods and new feelings. If you've limited your salt intake significantly (note: eating salts like sea salt and pink salt is actually good for your health), then you'll be extra sensitive to it. If you haven't allowed yourself dessert in a couple years, then the first sweet treat you have may feel overwhelmingly sweet. Your brain will react first and start telling you, "Oh, no, you did something wrong!" But unless you're having an allergic reaction (which I've had, and it's no fun, so please avoid any legitimate allergens!), the chances are that you're experiencing more of a mind-over-body effect than anything else.

Mind-over-body can be used for good, but it can also be used for bad. If you're thinking, "Oh, I feel awful," then you might feel worse than if you're thinking, "I've got a strong, smart body that knows what it's doing."

I recently discovered the "Fear-Free Food" blog by Nicola Jane Hobbs, who is the author of Fear-Free Food and Thrive Through Yoga. One of Nicola's posts is about what she calls "Eating Essentialism":

Eating essentialism is about only focusing on the elements of eating that are absolutely necessary. So, rather than worrying about which lunch option has fewer carbs or whether your oats have gluten in (unless you are diagnosed coeliac), you can channel your time, energy and effort into more meaningful goals. (Nicola Jane Hobbs)

Basically, Eating Essentialism means casting aside the food rules we've accumulated over time (excluding allergy restrictions) and focusing only on a) eating without rules and b) eating enough to nourish ourselves properly. Drop everything else, and just focus on these two principles.

It's pretty liberating, right? I highly recommend checking out Nicola's other posts, which delve into meditation, intuitive eating, and recipes.

Something else that's helpful...spirituality! Pema Chodron says that, when in times of struggle, we need to "just be with" our struggle. She says, "people . . . have the capacity to feel" a whole range of feelings. We don't feel good all the time. That's the "richness of life," and in eating disorder recovery, there are a lot of times when we feel uncomfortable, so we want to pull away. We want to run away. But this is where a lot of addiction stems from. We're too scared to leave the little boxes we've created for ourselves because we're desperate to feel comfortable. Don't eat salt. It feels "different." 

No. No more rules. Everybody, let's step out of our boxes!!  "Fear is a natural reaction to moving closer to the truth" (Pema Chodron), and our bodies are stronger and smarter than we give them credit for. Get rid of food anxiety, trust yourself, and open your life up.

Let your life crack open and spill a gorgeous rainbow everywhere.

<3